The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1887-07-23
THE ORDINANCE OF 1877.
Centennial Educational
influence and Results of the Great Ordi-
nance,

nance.
The National Educational Associa-
ton, whose annual meeting was held in
this city last week, very appropriately
devoted the evening Of Wednesday,
July ID, to special commemoration of
the centennial of the passage by the
Continental Congress of the ordinance
of 1887, adopted exactly one hundred
years ago that evening. The President
of the Association, William E. Sheldon,
of Boston; Ex,President Andrews, of
Marietta College; President Pickard
of the State University of Iowa, and
DR.. B. A. Hinsdale, of Cleveland, made
addresses on the occasion, passing in
vivid review, the social, political and
educational influence and results of
the great enactment, by which that
portion of our country known as the
Interior" was consecrated to freedom
and civilization.
Mr.. Sheldon's address was as follows:
We are assembled to commemorate
an event in our national history of the
greatest signifcance,-the passage of
the famous Ordinance of 1887 by the
Continental Congress, in session in New
York, just one hundred years ago to-
day. 1t provided for the government
of what was called the Northwest
Territory" embracing the vast area
coded by the States of Massachusetts.
Connecticut, New York and Virginia
to the United States, bounded on the
north by the great lakes, on the east by
the lakes and the Ohio River, on the
south by the Ohio River, and on the
west by the Mississippi River. This
measure was introduced into Congress
by Mr.. Nathan Dane, of Massachusetts,
chairman of a committee appointed to
frame the ordinance, although the pro-
visions embraced in it had been origi-
nally suggested by Rev. Manasseh Gut
Ter, clergyman of that State. The
measure was reported by the commit
tee July IL, 1887, and passed July 10,
it is said near 8 O'Clock, P. NJ, just about
one hundred years ago this very hour.
This ordinance concluded with six un-
alterable articles of perpetual compact,
which are the great corner-stones in the
grand temple of American civilization.
The first provided for entire relig-
ious freedom; the second secured to all
the inhabitants trial by jury, the writ
of habeas corpus, and the political rights
and privileges enumerated in the "Bill
of Rights; the third provided for the
encouragement of schools, and for good
faith, justice, and humanity toward
the Indians; and the sixth provided
! that there shall be neither slavery nor
involuntary servitude in the said terri
tory, otherwise than in punishment of
crimes, whereof the party shall have
been duly convicted"
Is it not eminently fitting that the
National Educational Association
should, convened as it is, in the great
metropolis of this northwest territory,
celebrate, as we do tonight, the one
hundredth anniversary of this, the first
and most important step of the general
government to secure universal freedom
and education for all its people?
In our judgment, the history of this
forerunner of the Great American Con-
stitution deserves to have its centen-
NAL widely recognized, and especially
by the educators of the nation.
AS we contemplate the far-reaching
influence and results of this historical
fact, do we fully realize the vast strides
civilization has made in this stretch of
years intervening between the evening
of July 10, 1887, and July 10, 1887?
What changes have come over the
affairs Of the world since thenl at
that time there was not religious
journal, nor even an agricultural
paper, published upon the American
continent, and but few of any other
kind. Daniel Webster, Henry Clay,
John G. Calhoun, Abraham Lincoln,
U. s. Grant, men who have since mold
ed the destiny of the nation, were yet
unborn. Napoleon the First had not
convulsed all Europe with his cruel
wars, and the City of London, the
largest and richest city of the world,
with population to-day of over 4,000,-
900, had not then as many dwelling
houses as has the inland City of Chica-
go to-day,-a city of fifty years growth
only.
One hundred years ago there were
no railroads, no steamboats,, no locomo-
tives; no moving, no reaping, no thresh-
ing machines; no iron plows, no cook
stoves, no ready-made clothing, no
spring wagons; in fact, there were
none of the luxuries and few of the
utilities that the arts and the sciences
have brought into common use during
the last half of the nineteenth century.
The intellectual activities and develop
ments have likewise kept pace with
the growth of the material interests.
Institutions of learning of every grade,
&c., -. A-L Il